Phil Stevens Professional Bio

Executive Vice President and CIO

Responsibilities include identifying and cultivating major growth initiatives, overseeing the company’s worldwide technology strategy and expanding a world class organization to deliver exceptional value to all clients. Additional responsibilities include strengthening relationships with existing clients, providing leadership to the development and sales teams, and providing thought leadership in the development of new products.

Board Member

Serving as a board member for the online magazine, TechnologyProfessional.Org. I recruit executive contributors and help in setting organizational strategy. Previously, as CIO, created the site architecture, hired the development team, launched the site, and managed operations.

Chief Information Officer (CIO)

Shaking up a conservative industry through improved analytics, origination, and collection processes, EFP rapidly grew to become the fourth largest originator of private student loans. As a member of the leadership team, I created the technology strategy to support aggressive business goals and rapid growth.

As the CIO I was responsible for development of the website that was our primary channel to our customers. During my tenure, we launched a a loan origination platform and began the design of a loan servicing platform. 

Business intelligence was a key enabler of the corporate growth strategy, so we built and enhanced a sophisticated data warehouse which enabled the creation of credit models to support improved origination and more proactive collections and servicing. The result was a more profitable and higher quality loan portfolio. 

My team was also responsible for the operation of corporate applications as well as the primary and DR data centers. By continuously improving operational processes, we ensured systems were efficient, stable, and scalable.

With a goal to sell the company or to go public, I was part of a team that supported extensive due dilligence efforts. When the frozen capital markets threatened our business, these efforts changed focus but increased in intensity. Despite the fact that EFP ultimately filed for Chapter 7, this was an opportunity to demonstrate technology as a powerful enabler for business strategy.

SVP, Infrastructure and Operations

My responsibility progressively increased from architecture, middleware software development, and application support to ultimately include all corporate technology operations. The Macy’s infrastructure supported $28 billion in sales, 200,000 users, and over 1,000 locations including more than a dozen sites overseas. 

Accomplishments:
* Led an organizational and cultural change among the 500 employees in IT operations. Over a period of three years, multiple operations groups were transformed into a high-performance team that provided better service for Macy’s with fewer people. We improved morale and customer satisfaction through a comprehensive change strategy.

* Significantly improved operational availability with improved systems management infrastructure, operational dashboards, and the ITIL operations framework. I also partnered with development teams to implement CMMI. This resulted in faster system development while allowing us to leverage internal and outsourced resources.

* Reduced the cost of operations through the aggressive use of standards, automation, and new technology as well as on-shore and off-shore outsourcing. 

* Partnered for success in the acquisition, development, deployment, and support of corporate and ERP applications, which included: PeopleSoft, advertising, merchandising, logistics, point of sale, and others.

* Integrated the technology infrastructure in support of multiple corporate acquisitions and mergers, concluding with the on-time and on-budget integration of the May Company with Macy’s to form the largest department store company in the US. 

* With my team of Division Service Managers, I served as the liaison between the technology division and the rest of the corporation to ensure alignment of strategy and priorities.

* With responsibility for technical security, my team achieved Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) and Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance.

Florida Institute of  Technology

…..MS Information Technology

Purdue University

…..BS Computer Science